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Chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, Marjorie Wallace, has expressed concern about the possible impact on cannabis use. She said:

If the report is to be responsible, it must take account of the specific damage that cannabis can do to the developing brain, not only as recent studies have shown inducing irreversible cognitive deterioration but in around 10% of cases triggering severe psychotic illness.

Ten years after its predecessor committee last looked at the issue, it said change was now urgent.

The committee has said that a Royal Commission should be set up immediately so it could report back by 2015, when the next general election is due to take place.

There is no doubt that we have failed to deal with the dealers and we have not focused on the users. Only with this twin approach will we break the devastating cycle of drug addiction in society.

Drugs cost thousands of lives and the taxpayer billions of pounds each year. This is a critical, now or never moment for serious reform. If we do not act now, future generations will be crippled by the social and financial burden of addiction.